Does leaded gazoline made
a whole generation less intelligent?

Everybody
knows today that lead is a neurotoxic, which, with small but repeated
doses, harms the development of the brain and intelligence of the
child. So it is legitimate to ask what were the results of the
chronic intoxication of a whole generation by all the lead massively
rejected in the atmosphere, following the use of leaded gasoline by
cars. What could be the (statistical) effects of a lowering of the
average intelligence, even slight? What will happen when «lead
free» children will arrive at the age of creating their own
fashions and social movements? What challenges are waiting for them,
facing parents of the «leaded» generation?

Lead consumption in history

Everybody
heard that the Roman civilisation declined following the absorption
of lead (used at this time for water pipes and food additives).
Historians do not agree on that point, as it is very difficult to
know what really the matter was, who was eating lead at this time,
and who was less clever, in a ruthless world where anyway nobody had
access to a really fulfilling education.

A
less known coincidence, but much more troubling, happened in Germany,
with the use of lead as a pesticide, in the years 1920 and 1930,
followed by the rise of nazism. Of course other causes played to
start such a large social disease, but the fact remains that the nazi
generation was the one fed with leaded pesticides. We can suppose
that this generation was suffering of a lowered average intelligence,
which made it more vulnerable to the propagation of the nazi
delirium.

But
the coincidence which draw my attention was the very obvious reversal
of the youth, about in 1980: abandonment of idealistic, ecological,
social, community, self-managed movements, replaced by egocentric or
reactionary movements derived from the derelict punk ideas: cynicism,
withdrawal into oneself, rap, tags, fascist city gangs, black and
violent video games, etc. This reversal more or less matches the
ripening of the generation which started to breathe lead in quantity,
in the 1950-60 years. Of course we can see here, as well as with the
nazism, the result of the reactionary propaganda of the medias (In
France: sardou, rap, Libé, «radios caca»,
despising of idealists, etc.). This propaganda being unable to stop
the idealistic movements, the scheme was to present a reactionary
mind set as being «the youth's fashion», which worked
very well... But an idealistic youth is, by principle impervious to
such a propaganda. This strongly suggest that this generation had a
weaker ground: the leaded generation?

What to expect?

If
this relation between lead and the political awareness really exists,
this situation should be only temporary. This is because, after a
shameless pollution in the 1970-80 years (Joachim Curtius, University
of Francfurt, in a study on lead as an antagonist of greenhouse
effect), lead free gasoline started a radical lowering of lead in the
atmosphere, during the 1990 years. So we should soon see the arrival
to teenage of a new unleaded generation, and, if this relation really
exists, to a come back of idealism among youngsters. This should
happen in the 2010 years (written in 2009).

(To the condition of course that no other more subtle pollution hampered
intelligence... We already know that these generations will have
their sexuality impeded by some pesticides, thanks to mister the
farmers of another age who still refuse organic farming.
Studies published in California, into «Environmental Health
Perspectives» or conducted by the Mount Sinai Hospital Center,
or by the University of Columbia, all show a strong diminution
of intelligence among children exposed to organophosphate into
non-organic food. Other studies also show a link with
attention deficit disorder, with or without hyperactivity.
All this casts a gloomy shadow on the near future, and it could very
well explain the return of social diseases such as xenophobia or
district gangs.)

It is difficult to figure how new positive and idealistic
movements may look like. Come back of the 1960-70 years, or something
entirely new? We can expect environment, spirituality, responsible
social... or something entirely new.

Traps
of the past and of the future

We
can however only wish for such a situation, but we must not forget
that the previous idealistic generation did not produced much, as it
was victim of numerous traps. So the Hippies were destroyed by drugs,
French May 1968 and communities were rotten with marxism from the
very beginning, and at last the European environment movement was
taken over by the Greens political party and sterilized of all its
social, artistic or idealistic components. Only Martin Luther King's
anti-racism movement saw its ideas written into laws and implemented
into government actions.

The
proportion of idealistic youth which could remain into the
1980-1990-2000 years could however exist, but into a movement which
remains largely underground (and even completely censored in France):
the New Age. Living at its epoch, this movement is a raw springing
out of spirituality and altruism, going far beyond everything else in
the domains of art and beauty. But it fell into the trap of numerous
cults, and of ideological viruses such as «everyone his own
truth» which forbid its members to chuck out all the crooks and
nutter theories which stifle this movement and make it rot.

So
there is much to bet that future unleaded movements will have to
thwart similar traps, and it is the purpose of this page to warn
them. Especially this page is for all the youngsters who will lead a
questioning of ready made ideas, when they have no experience of such
a step and its numerous traps.

We
already see the propagation of unfounded rumours, such as aspartame
or soy which would be very toxic, through «cool»
propaganda channels with a good funding. A dogmatic spiritual
movement, disconnected of science or of serious spiritual teachings,
would be as dangerous as the marxism, and mislead numerous persons
into impracticable ways, antisocial attitudes, and even lead to
dictatorship. DANGER! A dogmatic environment movement
rejecting technology, science, altruism or
spirituality would quickly take us back to the Middle Age, on every
points of view. DANGER!

The
reactions of the society

But
eventual positive social movements in the years 2010 may have to face
deliberrate hostility. The parents of the hippies in the years 1960
were strongly impregnated with grey, normative and puritan
ideologies, which brought them to very reactionary positions toward
their children, as to reject their search of beauty while hypocritically
letting the drugs free.

Similarly,
the parents of youngsters in the years 2010-2020 will be those who
grew into the disorder, anarfascism, individualism, cynicism,
materialism and racism of city gangs, the sniggering rejection of
beauty. And these brown ideologies are as much contemptuous and
normative than the grey puritanism of the years 1960. So there are
chances that these more sensitive children will feel lonely and
misunderstood. The clash will likely happen at the level of
expressing beauty, or clothing, or «signes ostentatoires»
(ostentatious signs). My guess is for a spiritual movement, but which
would enliven concretely a search for beauty, of harmony in society.
With for parents some «beaufs» (in French, petty middle
class character, atheist and reactionary, whom prototype is Cabu),
amateur of trash video games, with pervert
«educators» who «do not make morale»... We
are going toward, once again, a «new generation that the
parents don't understand»...

Still
more teenagers suicides in sight, if we do nothing to help these
youngsters to understand what happens to them and keep their
self-confidence, if one does repression before understanding. Than
only one reader avoid this doom with reading it, would far more that
repay the effort to publish it. But it would be fine too, if one
could pass the information to all the others... Sir and Ladies the
educators? The journalists? We hear stories of Internet pages which
get millions of readers...

Clarification
on statistics and intelligence

When
I speak of «leaded generation», one must not understand
that people born between 1960 and 1995 would be all idiots. This is
only a statistics, an average. The intelligence of a given individual
is determined by numerous factors, and can vary in much larger
proportions than the effect described here. In more, lead could
affect other faculties, emotional or social intelligence, which allow
to have an happy life with others. Then lead could explain this
prevalence today of this geek autism, which impairs the same
generation, with so many youngsters or former youngsters entrenched
behind their screen, into the negation of common sense and rejection
of emotional life.

But
we must understand that a small variation of the average intelligence
(or of any other faculty of the mind, such as emotional intelligence
or interest in others) can have much larger consequences. These
things are ruled by a mathematical domain said of percolation, as it
starts from the study of fluids propagating into porous materials (as
into a percolator). In a poorly porous material, fluids cannot flow
from a pore to the other. And even if we progressively increase
porosity, the flow does not increase in proportion: it remains null.
But it suddenly starts when enough pores are connected together, in
order to create a first continuous path. A similar reasoning holds
for epidemics, which can propagate only if a minimum proportion of
persons are likely to catch them. If the proportion is too weak, the
epidemics does not propagate, or it remains confined to some marginal
cases. But if a lowering of hygiene standards makes more persons
vulnerable, then an unexpected epidemics can suddenly «appear»
and spread in a very fast way. So we can expect that the propagation
of ideas (and also alas of ideologies) obey to similar laws: the
progressive appearance of a fair enough percentage of receptive
persons will provoke the sudden appearance of an unexpected
intellectual or social movement. On the other hand, a small drop of
the average intellectual level could trigger the fast expansion of
stupid or retrograde movements. This is probably what happened with
nazism, and also in 1980, with the appearance of rap, gangs, etc. triggered
by a punk movement which had no intend whatsoever to become a
normative thought system. This fashion spreading of anti-life or
anti-social ideologies can be called a social disease.

At
last, when enough people are receptive, the chances of intellectual
life will make a small number of «theoreticians» popular,
and their speech will spread fast. They will give their style, ideas,
concepts and vocabulary to the movement, making of it a very original
and unexpected one. This is what makes all the interest of the
phenomenon... but also its danger, as it will also make common the
mistakes and limitations of these persons.

The
instructive precedent of the Indigo Children

Some
adepts of the New Age think that angels or people of other planets
reincarnate as Humans, in order to help Mankind: they would be the
indigo children. Those adepts propose criterion which allow to point
as some children as being indigo: early awakening, interest toward
others, manifestations of altruism, artistic sense, etc. But if we
think a bit, these criterion describe children... who are normal,
whose parents take care normally! However other adepts of this
movement also consider various personality troubles (autism,
hyperactivity, cognitive deficit...) as «consequences of the
repression of the society» on children with superior
capacities, repressed or misunderstood. Such a repression happens (I
saw examples), and it can really lead to a trauma having the
appearance of such troubles. But the most often, these troubles
happen naturally. Then, to systematically accuse the society allows
crook psychologists to easily manipulate the parents. It is clear
that with such movements, we enter into unchartered domains, allowing
for slanted interpretations in both ways: true cultist dereliction or
normative persecutions.

If
I mention here this story of indigo children, it is not to
advertise them,it is because the
adepts of future unleaded movements are quite sure to be confronted
to the same two dangers: sectarian/ideological drift, or
psychologizing/normative repression... which results will be the
same.

Tips
and advices

Persecutions
could take place against a new generation which would manifest higher
interests than the rap and the gangs, which would follow more
interesting fashions, or would organize into unexpected social
movements. A very good pretext for persecutions would be the
appearance of a violent movement, a thing I clearly warn of. But
persecutions could also aim at perfectly benign behaviours, such as
refusing meat, meditating, dreaming, not being in a gang, refusing a
normative «psychotherapy», refusing casual sex, not
smoking marijuana, not looking at the TV, being victim of mockery,
following the fashion, not following the fashion, showing altruism or
sensitivity, hearing nice music, being interested into nature or
poetry, visiting virtual worlds, wearing «signes ostentatoires
d'appartenance» (ostentatious signs), or any arbitrary pretext
that sadistic educators and politicians use to invent, in order to
mark people into categories and play to make them suffer. If, as a
teenager, you are victim of such persecutions, understand the danger:
persecutors are paranoid, and if you protest, this will only comfort
them into their delirium and attacks. Rather say that you
«understand», in order to calm them, and continue to lead
your life more discretely.

In
the other way, I would also like to warn the future adepts of new
movements against cultist tendencies, which can take very varied
appearances: marxism and leftism, false psychology, refusal of the
society, social conformism, religious cults, etc. Especially:

- Refuse any statement which is spreading without being checked by
science studies, sources or inquiries. Keep away of people who repeat
them, and especially of those who are well paid to publish them. Keep
in mind that every domain like ecology, medicine, dietetics, etc. are
based on science, only art and spirituality escape it.

- As much as physics, spirituality has its laws and ways. Great
spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism and Hindu Yoga, explain
this in a clear enough way, so that there is no need to add new
groups or to discard these basis. Refuse any self-recognized,
«revolutionary» or «polemical» guru.

- Apparently sympathetic or nice people may hide less nice intents.
This is especially the case of cults, where pleasant or gratifying
appearances may hide terrible traps. If, in a group, you feel very
bad without clear reason, check if it would not be a cult. A test
which often works is to tell them that you are something «bad»
(gay, Jew, scientist, cop, etc.) and see if they are still very
sympathetic.

- Be as wary of people who say society is the devil, as much as of those who
say that society is THE norm. The society is neither entirely good,
nor entirely bad. It contains all the heritage of positive
realisations of mankind, but alas its is still very far of being
expurgated of all the potential of negative reactions. And people can
serve the one, or the other, or most often the two.

- Nobody speaks for the society at a whole, even not the government. Be
wary of all who speak in the name of society, they only use it as an
instrument for their own not very social purposes.

- Boot the bum and chase away all those who come to «organise»
your movement. They remained stuck at Saint Petersburg in October
1917, dreaming to change your movement into a Molotov cocktails
factory, after emptying it of any substance. Hopeless.

- The purpose of a demonstration is not to beat the cops, but to pass a message
to the ones who will see it. And the message is much more into the
behaviour of the demonstration than on the posters. And anyway a
really new message never makes it through the medias, so don't waste
your time.

- The most dangerous moment in a movement is when the medias start to speak
of it, because then they can deform and break it. Keep discret, no great
gatherings, no visible manifestation, no vocabulary: keep PRIVATE. For instance we saw
how, in France, the medias organized the taking over of the ecologists, to the profit
of the «greens», atheistic and politically dependent.

- Wait to complete your studies before «dropping out».
If is what I did in France in 1973, about the communities. When I completed my
studies, there was no more communities... but I had a profession.

- Anyway any serious movement will need able and trained people.

- Stop any relation with those who reject science. Science is not free
of defects, but it is today the best basis for knowledge.

- Be as much wary of those who reject spirituality. Spirituality is the
basis of our evolution and liberation, which makes it still much more
important than science. However the information on what is really
spirituality is less widespread nowadays, so we need to explain first,
and reject only after.

- If Gods, angels or extraterrestrials can speak to some human beings,
so they don't need special individuals to do so. If they can speak to
them, they can also speak to us, and give us clear evidences
that their voices that we hear are not a trick of our imagination. In
short, be wary of any person who claims to be special, or enjoying
peculiar experiences. See evidences first. True mediums exist, but
they are rare.

- A serious movement does not need leaders, «representatives»
or political parties to live and exist: marxism destroyed the
socialist ideal, as much as the Greens destroyed the self managed
environment movement. A valuable movement needs people who incarnate
its values in a concrete and lasting way, people who work and do
something, kind people easy to live with, who give the desire to join
the movement.

- A valuable movement proposes its ideal to the society, it doesn't
throw it in its face.

- But by far the greatest lesson of the years 1960 and 1970 is that no
social movement can success if it is not accompanied of the
elimination of all our psychological problems. This is a
spiritual work on the very basis of the functioning of our minds, a
liberation work about all what frustrates us and make us act badly
toward others. This is a long and tricky process, but the only one
possible, whatever it is just not quarrel in a small group, or to
lead successfully a great movement into a length of time. All social
movement which do not undertake a form or another of psychological
liberation is hopelessly phoney, doomed to fail or to exist in books
only.

- So any person who will come along telling you that the spiritual aspect is not
important will have to be considered as active opponent.

- Same for anti-science people.

The Arab spring

Updated on March 11, 2011:

The Arab spring seems to match the scenario described above:
the sudden appearance of a vast movement, starting from a very local event.
What is surprising is its magnitude, the determination of its members,
their level of responsibility. Add to this the rejection of both the
usual «islamic» terrorism and hackneyed Israel/Arabs dichotomy...

However I was did not foresee it would happen in the Arab countries.
Probably, the rapid development of new communication means (cellphones,
social networks...) allowed for a large number of people to connect in
a short time, while they were in facts ready for long.

Updated on May 27, 2011:

It is also very interesting to note that the Arab
revolutions are all basically non-violent (wars which greeted
them are not their feat).

It is also very interesting that this movement is now spreading
in Europe... It is very unlikely that they overtrow the
solid democraties here, but some corrupted or incompetent
governments may pay the cost of the «crisis»
they provoked, that they aggravate with their sadomasochist
budget cuts.